JERUSALEM - By mining natural resources
from the occupied Palestinian territories for its own economic
purposes, Israel is committing the war crime of pillage in the Dead Sea
area, according to a report released Monday by Palestinian human rights
group Al Haq.

Criminal responsibility for the crime of pillage does not only extend
to the state of Israel, but can also be applied to individuals, namely
Israeli settlers who benefit from the extraction of resources from the
Dead Sea, Al Haq said.

“Although settlers and companies involved in the exploitation of the
natural resources of the Dead Sea are mainly encouraged to do so by the
State of Israel, they cannot ignore that such resources are considered
Palestinian under international law. This should be sufficient to
substantiate the ‘mental element’ of the crime of pillage, thus allowing
for some Israeli settlers to be considered as the direct perpetrators
of that crime,” the report stated.

Israel has maintained that numerous covenants of international
humanitarian law do not apply to the occupied Palestinian territories
since these areas are not under Israel’s jurisdiction. Recently, an
Israeli government-appointed committee, known as the Levy Committee,
also ruled that Israel is not an occupying power and that therefore,
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are legal.

Nonetheless, many international jurists have maintained that Israel
is violating basic principles of international law in its occupation of
the Palestinian territories and exploitation of the area’s resources.
Article 47 of the Hague Convention (1907), which outlines war crimes
under international humanitarian law, states that “pillage is formally
forbidden.”

Activists have launched a worldwide boycott campaign against Israeli
products that are manufactured in the occupied Palestinian territories,
and are inaccurately labeled as “Made in Israel.”

Recently, the South African government stated that it wouldn’t import
goods produced in the occupied West Bank that are marked as
Israeli-made. The United Church of Canada, the country’s largest
Protestant church, also passed a similar boycott resolution against all
settlement products.

The consequences of Israel’s exploitation of Palestinian resources
don’t end at the Dead Sea, however. In 2009, Israeli human rights group
Yesh Din submitted a petition the Israeli Supreme Court challenging the
legality of Israeli quarrying activities taking place throughout the
West Bank.

The court rejected the group’s petition on the basis that the rules
of occupation change when an occupation is long-term: the authorities of
an occupying power can expand, while the restrictions against it are
reduced in a state of long-term occupation, the court argued.

“Quarrying natural resources in an occupied territory for the
economic benefit of the occupying state is pillage, and the court’s
reasoning that a long-term occupation should be treated differently
cannot legalise an economic activity that harms the occupied residents,”
said Yesh Din legal advisor, Attorney Michael Sfard, in a press release
announcing the court’s decision.

The High Court subsequently stated that its ruling “does not
constitute a precedent and was given in the concrete circumstances of
the petition.” The decision, therefore, shouldn’t be applied to other
cases of Israeli exploitation of Palestinian resources, a representative
of Yesh Din told IPS.

In 1983, the same Israeli High Court ruled that “territory held in
belligerent occupation is not an open field for economic or other kind
of exploitation.”

Still, according to Sarit Michaeli, spokesperson of Btselem, the
Israeli information centre for human rights in the Occupied Territories,
the High Court has consistently refused to rule on the legality of
Israeli settlements, which it claimed is an issue that needs to be
resolved politically.

“The building of settlements requires taking over land, so in a sense
it’s the most important violation of this prohibition on the use of the
resources of the occupied area for the benefit of the occupying power,”
Michaeli told IPS.

She said that Israel continues to “flout international law” in its
exploitation of Palestinian resources, including, in particular, water,
land and underground resources.

“We’ve gotten to a situation where in some areas and on some issues,
there’s so much utilisation of the resources,” Michaeli said, adding
that, “at the moment, it doesn’t look like there’s any change in sight.”

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